JULY 3 2017

Good Morning and Welcome to Issue 1028. This edition corresponds with the chassis number of a fabulous Ferrari 512 owned by an American David Weir who ended up driving in his dream Le Mans 24 hour race alongside the brilliant Chris Craft after the playboy privateer Weir had been trained for some months by David Prowse – or as you might know him better, Darth Vader. Funny old world.

Tomorrow is Independence Day in the USA. As a fan of nations striking out on their own when empires go stale, I think I’ll have a day off this newsletter. Next Exchange Invest is coming Wednesday – enjoy your big day American readers and celebrate not just the July 4th wonderment but also enjoy the 3 year low in burger prices…

Happy Birthday Canada! 150 Years Young and looking good, despite having Justin Bieber, or is it, Trudeau (I always mix them up), represent you as a leader. Seriously, who doesn’t love Canada, they’re content to be the butt of the early series of South Park’s jokes and have given the rest of the world ice wine and poutine amongst other delicacies.

Where will you go next Canada? Well if I may make a suggestion based on your greatest sporting figure, “skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

Thanks for the maple syrup, the Blackberry, the Thomson media empire (especially for buying Reuters), Gilles Villeneuve and Conrad Black amongst other bounteous gifts to the world, particularly being the “Can” which went with “Am” and remains perhaps the gold standard of outrageous sports car racing…

Meanwhile, south of the border (how increasingly apt…): The New York Times is upset because POTUS ran a video showing him wrestling the CNN logo, claiming it will encourage violence against journalists. This is the same NYT which, despite laying off vast numbers of production staff recently, has sponsored a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar which sees Donald Trump decapitated…

Anyway, Happy Independence Day to both sides of the North American border where – I think – Trump’s isn’t planning a wall.

Public Markets

CDSL Shares Close 75% Higher On Stock Market Debut
Livemint

CDSL shares opened 68% higher on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at Rs250 apiece.

China’s Hong Kong Bond Link Gets Underway to Muted Reaction
Bloomberg

PLY: Given that the announcement of launch Monday only emerged late Friday, the first day was unlikely to be spectacular…and, besides, it is the standard practice of Hong Kong media to talk all these initiatives down based on scant evidence. Good news that HKEX has launched their latest ‘through train.’ The website of Bond Connect Company Limited can be found here: BCCL.

PSX Becomes First South Asian Self-Listed Bourse
The Nation

PLY: Rem: Indian exchanges must list on another venue, thus BSE is listed on NSE in India.

A Golden Era For The HK Stock Market
China Daily

PLY: Sitrep as part of the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover.

Moscow Exchange To Move To Interim Dividend Payment
MondoVisione

ECSDA Does Not See A Need For Reform Of EU Conflict Of Laws Rules
ECSDA

PLY: The electronic National Agricultural Markets initiative is a good idea, presuming the political regulatory complex can learn to appreciate that a national market across a continental sized country like India cannot reasonably be expected to deliver a single national price in any commodity.

DSE Gets Full Membership Of World Federation Of Exchanges
Financial Express

PLY: Congratulations to Dhaka SE on their becoming a full member of WFE. That said, I think they must have better things to do with their money than paying the rather outrageous fees to join a club in which there is little clear benefit to membership but at least it means the WFE gets an inch closer to relevance claiming world status but representing barely more than quarter of the actual world’s nations. That still seems a steep price for Bangladesh to pay…

PLY: Another attachment without any signs of the sales required for resolution.

Technology

NEX Optimisation Launches The Industry’s First Automated Settlement Netting Service – New Service Launched For OTC FX And Will Expand To All Asset Classes In The Future
MondoVisione

Stock Exchanges And Blockchain: Open Positions
Finextra (blog)

PLY: Slightly bland copy paste without much insight of what most exchanges are doing in DL. Misses out on a number of exchange interests such as various investors in DAH (CME, DTCC for instance), as well as Kynetix’s DL warehousing work with SDiX, Tradewind Markets created out of IEX which is aiming to play in the gold market and of course Funderbeam which is the funky crowdfunding meets SME player of the moment – that’s just the things which pop out of my head within a handful of seconds… I can think of more as I type but we need to race to pixel.

Likewise, I could probe a bit and note that of the various projects mentioned some look positively more on the vapourware end of the ledger methinks…

PLY: I am delighted to say that one of the most popular exchange / clearing / settlement figures, Henri Bergstrom has moved to the Middle East as Advisor for Business Development at the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Henri moves on from a long spell with OMX / NASDAQ and has relinquished that rather exotic Chairmanship of the Armenian Stock Exchange. I am sure there will be unanimous support for my best wishes towards a gentleman of the parish. Henri’s arrival has been announced simultaneous to the US lifting the laptop restriction for flights from Abu Dhabi – coincidence? I think not, Henri is a titan of parish influence behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia Berhad has appointed Datin Mariam Prudence binti Yusof as its Nominee Director of its subsidiary, Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Berhad (“BMD”), and its clearing house, Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Clearing Berhad (“BMDC”). Her appointment will take effect on 1 July 2017.

In London, the FCA has announced new panel chairmen:

Anne Richards, Chief Executive of M&G, becomes Chairman of the FCA Practitioner Panel from 1 August 2017. She has been a member of the Panel since 2013 and succeeds António Simões, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank plc.

John Trundle, Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear UK & Ireland, becomes Chairman of the FCA Markets Practitioner Panel from 1 July. He has been a member of the Panel since 2013 and succeeds Robert Mass, Senior Advisor in Global Compliance at Goldman Sachs.
Over at TP ICAP, David “Clumpy” Casterton has become Vice Chairman with immediate effect and is the most senior former ICAP figure in the management, a welcome and deserving position which will see David work to support the regional and global product and function heads within TP ICAP and continue to sit on the group’s Global Executive Committee (GEC) while relinquishing his his role as CEO of Global Broking for ICAP.

Nicolas Breteau will now assume sole responsibility for TP ICAP Global Broking with all four global business lines now report to a single leader.

Finally, Nick Deflora will step down from as CEO ICAP Americas and Deputy CEO TP ICAP Americas at the end of December. John Abularrage will assume sole leadership for the Region on January 1 for TP ICAP.

PLY: DIscussion with Andrew Bailey after his first year in charge of UK FCA. Very little of substance, albeit the extent of how much UK is cut out of ESMA discussions ought to impact on how much UK is likely to pay (if anything) to the EU in future once it leaves that club.
Once again all the best to our North American readers, whichever Independence Day you are celebrating!